Machka 

We had a couple who both should have been on CPAP machines in a tent about 3 metres from ours ... the ground shook.

staehpj1

I can't imagine anyone who rode coast to coast across the US or toured much in the more remote portions of the west being able to say that. I have found that, for me, at least some wild camping is assumed in remote parts of the country. Also even when in towns camping in places other than "designated campsites" is kind of a necessity on some tours IMO. In the rural West and the Great Plains I have found that I stay in actual campgrounds way less than half of the time. In those places town picnic areas and church yards are often where I camp.

That said I seldom need to employ stealth and in those infrequent times when I do it is usually somewhere that no one would mind any way. I typically camp in plain sight even when I wild camp in an improvised location. We did manage to do the Trans America with no stealth required, but we stayed in places other than "dedicated campgrounds" more often than not. Places like the Pacific Coast it is usually easy to stay in designated campgrounds only, but that has not been the case for the majority of my tours where at least some improvised sites were used.

I agree that the whole stealth thing is way over blown, but I suspect that much of what folks call stealth camping I would call dispersed camping or wild camping.

reppans

I have an ultra-compact/light(?) rig that's easy to carry some distance so I like to hike deeply into the woods where I'm not visible from any road or hiking trail, and preferably on higher ground. It's really worth a bit of bushwacking for me - much nicer outdoor nature experience, sleep much better when I'm not worried about discovery, can sleep in late if tired or raining, stand naked for a shower, etc.

I use smartphone satellite views to find large blocks of woods. Bike and gear are stored in my tent (forest green or granite grey). Moonlight (sub-lumen) flashlight, silent alcohol stove, etc. Ultra-stealth is important for me as I tend to tour in more densely populated areas than most folks.

J.Higgins 

indyfabz

Try spending 92 night on the road with 3 really bad snorers and one moderately bad one. I had never slept in a tent before and never considered how tents provide zero sound insulation. The first night of the trip I awoke to the loudest snoring I had ever heard. At one point I couldn't help saying something aloud. When I did, the guy next to me blurted out "Jesus Christ! I have never heard anyone snore that loud in my entire life." That caused us both to start laughing, which, in turn, caused a woman near us to start laughing as well.


After the first couple of nights, the snorers were segregated from the non-snorers in our group of 13. If we had one large camping area, the snorers had to pitch as far away as possible from the non-snorers. When we had multiple sites, there were snoring sites and non-snoring sites. Same with hotels/hostals: The female room(s) (none of them snored), the snoring room(s) and the non-snoring room(s).

djb

an old friend of mine snores so loudly that when I sleep at his house in the living room below his bedroom on the second floor, I can still hear it through the ceiling and it wakes me up, astoundingly loud.

jefnvk

Agreed, there is a distinction there. While not in a biking scenario, I've wild/dispersed camped in the Dakotas and Montana, and in Michigan. It was expressly legal everytime I did it, no need to hide. I could have easily chosen to drive to a campground, but I like free and wild camping is more up my alley than setting up in a makeshift RV park. Generally had a car parked right next to me, to make the point even more clear that someone was there.

Do things legally, there is no reason to have to bail in the middle of the night. I won't pass judgement on those that do, but I'd never purposefully plan on illegally camping on someone's property, because I don't want to deal with such issues.

BobG

Heh! I was quarantined to the snoring section on my first TransAm tour. I was also one of the four offenders in indyfabz's Northern Tier group. One starry night on a TransAm I remember leaving the fly off my tent. In the middle of the night it mysteriously was thrown back over. A group member said that my snoring was so loud that she had to do something to drown it out! Yes, I now sleep with a CPAP machine, one more thing to work into the packing scheme and find electricity for. Might have to experiment with those "Provent" nasal pads.

indyfabz

Heh. I wasn't even thinking abut you, so make that 5.

lhendrick

Lots of interesting observations and opinions here.

My thought is that this medication you take that makes you sleep so soundly and is necessary for medical reasons is a good reason not to camp in out of the way places by yourself, unless you are willing to assess and accept the potential dangers.

Sure, lots of folks here have camped in stealth mode, but they could hear and respond in the rare case where someone or something required attention. You would not have that ability.

I recommend you sleep in safer locales. Just my opinion.

One example from my long history of camping: In Canada, sleeping in my tent in a big well known developed campground. Rainy night. Big RV rig pulls in near me and proceeds to start backing up into my space, where he cannot see my dark (stealth) tent. I am awakened by the sound of tires on gravel a few feet from my head. I get out and bang on his RV........

djb

very wise words grasshopper (no reason why, but for some reason I had a flashback to that 70s show with David Carradine that I thought was pretty darn cool at the time as a kid).

Ty0604

Very well said. On tour last year I was in campgrounds less than 50% of the nights I was on the road. More so than not I ended up camping in a city park, behind a church or behind a fire/police station. With permission. Only a few times I stealth camped without permission. Slept on the back porch of an abandoned house in Jackson, WY during a nasty storm and in a public restroom a few days later in Shoshoni, WY.

Otherwise I've found that asking random places for permission to camp while on tour usually gets you a place. Slept behind a gas station somewhere (I think it was in South Dakota...) and behind an auto body shop in Niles, MI for example.

The reality is that there's longggggg stretches of this country without a single campground. Not every where is like Oregon an Washington where there's a campground every 5-10 miles it seems like.

RV only "campgrounds" are also getting to be more popular. The one outside of Jackson, WY use to allow tents but they no longer do. These glamping grounds (as I call them) have taken away sites for cyclist.

Cyclist0108

I really hope for your sake it got your leg or foot or arm or something like that.

300ps

It was on the top of my foot, very little flesh there. I consider myself very lucky. It was too dark to see what kind of snake but in the Mojave just about everything is poisonous. I'm a pee-bottle convert